Westport softball shows improvement in loss

WESTPORT — It has been an uphill climb for the youthful Westport softball team, but the hard work is starting to pay off.

DEREK VITAL

WESTPORT — It has been an uphill climb for the youthful Westport softball team, but the hard work is starting to pay off.

With seven of the 14 players on the varsity roster being freshmen, early season games often featured numerous fielding miscues and countless unearned runs. The Wildcats (1-9, 1-7 Mayflower) committed a pair of errors in Tuesday's 7-0 loss to Tri-County but were largely solid in the field. Head coach Chris Leger is thrilled with the progress her squad had made since practice began in March.

"We've made leaps and bounds improvements on defense and hitting," said Leger. "The first few games of the season we were averaging eight errors and six unearned runs. Now we've cut the errors down to just one or two per game and a couple of unearned runs. Now we have to get the offense going."

With no junior varsity program, Leger is forced to put young, inexperienced players into her everyday lineup. Westport took its lumps early on, but the experience is starting to pay dividends. With a year of varsity experience under their belt, the Wildcats will field a young team again in 2014 but one that knows what it takes to succeed at the high school level.

"Most of them have little to no experience," said Leger. "There's no JV team so they are thrown to the lions. We spent the first five or six practices on simple, basic stuff like how to take a lead. We're behind the eight ball compared to other teams not having a JV. But there's a lot of positives when you look at the whole picture."

One of the freshmen is pitcher Emilie Medeiros, who worked the first four innings of the loss to the Cougars. She allowed five runs on four hits, walked five and struck out five, including four batters who took a called third strike.

"I noticed a big improvement by Emilie on the mound," said Leger. "That was her best game."

The Wildcats finished with six hits in Tuesday's loss, highlighted by Katy Weisman and Kylie Marcoux, who had two apiece.

DEFENSE KEY TO WILDCATS IMPROVED PLAY: A couple of games ago, Leger switched senior Ashley Turner from third base to shortstop and Tabitha Reitano from second to third and the errors have dropped dramatically. In an 8-3 loss to Tri-County earlier this season, all eight runs given up were unearned. On Tuesday, they allowed a pair of unearned runs, but also turned an inning-ending double play in the seventh. "They have been doing a fantastic job," said Leger. "My center fielder (Rachel Cowen) is a beast. Nothing gets by her. We've had huge improvements on defense."

LACK OF TIMELY HITTING A CONCERN FOR WILDCATS: Westport had runners in scoring position in the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but could not drive them home. The Wildcats left eight runners on base versus Tri-County. "That's been happening a lot actually," said Leger. "We've been getting runners on then struggling to get them in."

NOTES: Westport hopes to come away with its second win of the season when it takes on Southeastern Voke on Thursday. The Wildcats beat the Vikings back on April 4. Sophomore Khoryn Cote worked the final three innings in relief of Medeiros, allowing two runs on three hits. She walked two and struck out one.